Bringing together 50 key readings on rhetorical criticism in a single accessible format, The Rhetorical Criticism Readerfurnishes instructors with an ideal resource for teaching and practicing the art of rhetorical criticism. Unlike existing readers and textbooks, which rely on cookie-cutter approaches to rhetorical criticism, The Rhetorical Criticism Reader organizes the field conceptually, allowing teachers and students to grapple with the enduring issues and debates surrounding criticism over the past 50 years. The readings are organized into four sections, each representing key conceptual issues and debates in rhetorical criticism: critic/purpose, object/method, theory/practice, and audience/consequentiality. Each section is preceded by an introductory essay that puts the readings into context. For added flexibility, an alternative table of contents is also included for instructors and students to customize their teaching and reading. Intended for upper-division undergraduate and graduate courses in rhetorical criticism, The Rhetorical Criticism Reader uniquely lends itself to thoughtful discussion of the role of the critic in the critical process. It assists readers not only in learning the tools of criticism, but also in reflecting on the values that underlie the critical endeavor.

A comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to the analysis of public rhetoric, Modern Rhetorical Criticism teaches readers how to examine and interpret rhetorical situations, ideas, arguments, structure, and style. The text covers a wide range of critical techniques, from cultural and dramatistic analysis to feminist and Marxist approaches. A wealth of original criticism demonstrates how to analyze such diverse forms as junk mail, congressional debates, and traffic regulations, as well as literature. This long-awaited revision contains new coverage of mass media, feminist criticism, and European criticism.

A comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to the analysis of public rhetoric, Modern Rhetorical Criticism teaches readers how to examine and interpret rhetorical situations, ideas, arguments, structure, and style. The text covers a wide range of critical techniques, from cultural and dramatistic analysis to feminist and Marxist approaches. A wealth of original criticism demonstrates how to analyze such diverse forms as junk mail, campaign speeches, and popular entertainment, as well as literature. This long-awaited revision offers specific guidance on crafting analytic essays, and contains new coverage of legacy as well as new media, identity criticism, and post-colonial and decolonial criticism. The fourth edition also offers additional resources online for instructors and students.

First Published in 1995. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book examines the reception of rhetoric and the rhetoric of reception. By considering salient rhetorical traits of rhetorical utterances and texts seen in context, and relating this to different kinds of reception and/or audience use and negotiation, the authors explore the connections between rhetoric and reception. In our time, new media and new forms of communication make it harder to distinguish between speaker and audience. The active involvement of users and audiences is more important than ever before. This project is based on the premise that rhetorical research should reconsider the understanding, conceptualization and examination of the rhetorical audience. From mostly understanding audiences as theoretical constructions that are examined textually and speculatively, the contributors give more attention to empirical explorations of actual audiences and users. The book will provide readers with new knowledge on the workings of rhetoric as well as illustrative and guiding examples of new methods of rhetorical studies.

This book is designed to orient the beginning student to the nature and function of rhetorical criticism, to acquaint the student with those elements in the rhetorical situation that warrant serious attention, and to teach the student a useful strategy with which to begin to practice criticism ... The focus of this book is clearly on public speeches ... Along with mastering basic concepts, the beginning critic will also be given the opportunity ... to begin grappling with fundamental and enduring critical issues ... [The authors] have included in this book texts and examples of how critics have studied those texts. [They also] offer two historical texts along with [their] own critical readings of those texts ... [The book then] presents two texts and illustrations of the various critical responses to these texts ... The first [text is] Richard Nixon's "Address on the Vietnam War, [and the second is] Jesse Jackson's "Common Ground and Common Sense" ... Finally ... several examples of critical readings by rhetorical scholars illustrate different ways to approach texts.-Pref

This handbook represents the first comprehensive disciplinary investigation into the relationship between rhetoric and power as it is expressed in different aspects of society. Providing conceptual and empirical foundations for the study of the relationship between different forms of rhetorical expression and diverse structures, practices, habits, and networks of power, The Routledge Handbook of Rhetoric and Power is divided into six parts: Theoretical Foundations Propaganda, Politics, and the State Resistance and Social Movements Culture, Society, and Identity Discourses of Technique and Organization Prospects for the Future The guiding principle of this handbook is that power represents a capacity for coordinated action grounded in specific historical, technological, political, and economic conditions. It suggests that rhetoric is an art that adapts to these conditions and finds ways to transform, create, or undermine these capacities in other people through self-conscious persuasion. Featuring contributions from key scholars, this accessibly written handbook will be an indispensable resource for researchers and students in the fields of rhetoric, writing studies, communication studies, political communication, and social justice.